Successful, safe and sustainable cities: towards a New ... · Successful, safe and sustainable...

Successful, safe and sustainable cities: towards a New Urban Agenda

for the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network: 2016 meetingSuccessful, safe and sustainable cities: making cities fi t for the future

Marlborough House, London, 12-13 July 2016

C O M M O N W E A LT H L O C A L G OV E R N M E N T F O R U M

C L G F B AC K G RO U N D PA P E R

supported by

Commonwealth SustainableCities Network


www.clgf.org.uk2

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) was founded in 1995, as a focus for action on local democracy in the Commonwealth. It works to promote and strengthen democratic local government across the Commonwealth and to encourage the exchange of best practice. It has some 200 members in 45 Commonwealth countries including national ministries of local government, local councils, and local government associations.

Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network (CSCN)

The CLGF CSCN Network was set up in June 2015 to focus on

cities and the New Urban Agenda and what support is needed to

equip them to meet the new SDGs. An inaugural meeting of the

network was held in Singapore in October 2015. The network

comprises city members of CLGF and partner organisations.

The CSCN focuses strongly on medium, capital and secondary

cities which are part of the CLGF membership. It is open to any

Commonwealth city member of CLGF.

This paper was commissioned by CLGF for the July 2016 meeting

of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network and written

by David Satterthwaite, International Institute for Environmental

Development, UK

The meeting is taking place in the run-up to Habitat III and the

World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments and will help

formulate a local government position to feed into these meetings.

CLGF would like to thank the author, those who provided case

studies and the UK Department for International Development

for providing fi nancial support.

Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF)

The views expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views CLGF or DFID. Whilst every care is taken in compiling the publication, CLGF does not accept any responsibility for inaccuracies.


3

1. Introduction


1. Introduction

There is a new interest in cities by national governments

and international agencies from three perspectives.

The fi rst is the recognition of their economic importance

- for attracting investment and innovation in national and

regional economies. The second is in the healthy living

conditions and high quality of life they can provide, if they

are well governed. The third is in their potential to delink

a high quality of life from high greenhouse gas emissions

and thus contribute to avoiding dangerous climate change.

Table 1 summarises how the negative view of cities has

given way to more positive perspectives.

Table 1: How cities are viewed

Negative Positive

Parasites on the economy and on rural areas

Leading innovation, social justice and economic success

Centres that concentrate and generate air and water pollution

Centres with the healthiest populations and low levels of air pollution

Driving climate change Centres that reconcile high quality of life with low emissions

Concentrations of poverty, inequality and violence

Centres for inclusive livelihood opportunities, cultural exchange and gender empowerment

While there are examples of innovative cities or city-

communities that validate the positive attitude, there are

also many examples of urban centres which meet few, if

any, of the criteria for sustainable development – and with

very large defi cits in provision for basic infrastructure and

services. Cities provide so many agglomeration economies

that lower the costs of achieving the positive aspects – but

these depend on urban governments with the capacity

to take advantage of these. So many urban governments

have little or no investment capacity and technical capacity

to do so.1

Two new sets of goals have been agreed that have

such relevance for city and municipal governments; the

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris

Agreement. But while these commitments have been

developed and agreed by national governments, many

fall within the responsibilities of local governments.

National governments committed to a comprehensive

and ambitious set of goals within the SDGs and Paris

Agreement – but with little said about who has to act

and how these will be fi nanced. It is hoped that the

New Urban Agenda being drafted for agreement at

the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban

Development in October 2016 will address these.

This paper and the second meeting of the Commonwealth

Sustainable Cities Network follow on from the ‘Cities 2030:

Vision, leadership and public service excellence’ meeting

held in Singapore in September 2015. The outcome

document of this meeting was the Singapore Statement

on Commonweath Cities implementing the 2030 Agenda

on Sustainable Development. (See Annex A)

www.clgf.org.uk

1 United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) (2014), Basic Services for All in an Urbanizing World; the Third Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization, Routledge, London.


www.clgf.org.uk4

2. The sustainable development goals and urban development


The SDGs bring a very ambitious range of goals that

are relevant for rural and urban development – and

for global issues. Human development, is central to the

SDGs; so is the elimination of extreme poverty and

hunger and ‘leaving no-one behind.’ They recognise

the importance of having goals that focus on urban

issues. They also include goals and targets relevant to

disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and

climate change mitigation in urban areas and even a

recommendation that responds to the need for these

to be integrated (United Nations 2015).

The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments

(GTF)2 of which CLGF is a member, successfully

campaigned for the inclusion of a specifi c stand-alone goal

on sustainable urbanisation in the 2030 Agenda. SDG 11

calls on all actors to “make cities and human settlements

inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and has 10 targets

covering areas such as housing, transport, air quality and

waste management among others (see box 1)

The SDGs relevant to human development and poverty

reduction are mostly national goals – and so are assumed

to include urban populations. They include:

■ Universal provision for risk-reducing infrastructure by 2030: 6.1 achieve universal and

equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water

for all; 6.2 achieve access to adequate and equitable

sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation,

paying special attention to the needs of women and

girls and those in vulnerable situations

■ Universal provision for services by 2030: 7.1

ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and

modern energy services; 1.3 Implement nationally

appropriate social protection systems and measures

for all, including minimum, and achieve substantial

coverage of the poor and the vulnerable; 1.4 ensure

that all men and women, in particular the poor

and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic

resources, as well as access to basic services; 3.8

Achieve universal health coverage, including fi nancial

risk protection, access to quality essential health-

care services and access to safe, effective, quality and

affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all; 4.1

ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable

and quality primary and secondary education; and

11.2 Provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and

sustainable transport systems for all

■ Universal housing: 11.1 by 2030, ensure access for

all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic

services and upgrade slums.

■ The rule of law: 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive

societies for sustainable development, provide access

to justice for all and build effective, accountable and

inclusive institutions at all levels; 16.3 promote the

rule of law at the national and international levels and

ensure equal access to justice for all; and 16.9 By 2030,

provide legal identity for all, including birth registration

■ Voice/participation/government accountability to citizens: 11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and

sustainable urbanisation and capacity for participatory,

integrated and sustainable human settlement planning

and management in all countries; 16.6 Develop

effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all

levels; 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory

and representative decision-making at all levels; 16.10

Ensure public access to information and protect

fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national

legislation and international agreements

■ Decent work and livelihood opportunities: 8.3 promote development-oriented policies that

support productive activities, decent job creation,

entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and

encourage formalisation and growth of micro, small

and medium-sized enterprise; 8.5 By 2030 achieve full

and productive employment and decent work for all

women and men, including young people and persons

with disabilities; 8.8 protect labour rights and promote

safe and secure working environments for all workers;

4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of

youth and adults who have relevant skills, including

technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent

jobs and entrepreneurship.

One of the hot issues in discussions of the SDGs, the Paris

Agreement and now the New Urban Agenda is the extent

to which local governments can be considered as leaders

in making and addressing their commitments and the

extent to which national governments allow (or actually

support) this. City governments are not recognised as

part of ‘government’ at inter-governmental meetings

within the United Nations. Offi cial development assistance

agencies can only fund city governments with the approval

of national governments. But local governments are

becoming more organised, in recognition of the need to

2 The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments is a coordination mechanism bringing together the major networks of local government to undertake joint advocacy relating to international policy processes

1 Introduction


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infl uence global commitments, especially those that are

part of their responsibilities.

Within this is the growth of networks of urban

governments (or local governments) to press their

priorities. To demand that they are a key part of

‘government’ not just one among many stakeholders

(as in many international documents and discussions).

To be recognised as more than just ‘implementers’ but

as key actors in setting and achieving locally determined

priorities.

The prospects of meeting most of the SDGs and the

Paris Agreement would be enormously enhanced if local

governments were allowed (and encouraged) to make

their own commitments to meeting the new goals and

to infl uence national policies and funding systems to

support this.

Targets:

11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe

and affordable housing and basic services and

upgrade slums

11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable,

accessible and sustainable transport systems for all,

improving road safety, notably by expanding public

transport, with special attention to the needs of

those in vulnerable situations, women, children,

persons with disabilities and older persons

11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable

urbanisation and capacity for participatory,

integrated and sustainable human settlement

planning and management in all countries

11.4 Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the

world’s cultural and natural heritage

11.5 By 2030, signifi cantly reduce the number of

deaths and the number of people affected and

substantially decrease the direct economic losses

relative to global gross domestic product caused

by disasters, including water-related disasters, with

a focus on protecting the poor and people in

vulnerable situations

11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita

environmental impact of cities, including by paying

special attention to air quality and municipal and

other waste management

11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive

and accessible, green and public spaces, in

particular for women and children, older persons

and persons with disabilities

11.a Support positive economic, social and

environmental links between urban, peri-urban

and rural areas by strengthening national and

regional development planning

11.b By 2020, substantially increase the number of

cities and human settlements adopting and

implementing integrated policies and plans

towards inclusion, resource effi ciency, mitigation

and adaptation to climate change, resilience to

disasters, and develop and implement, in line with

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at

all levels

11.c Support least developed countries, including

through fi nancial and technical assistance, in

building sustainable and resilient buildings utilising

local materials

Box 1: SDG Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable


www.clgf.org.uk6

3. Challenges

3. ChallengesThe diversity among Commonwealth countries makes

it diffi cult to generalise challenges facing their local,

regional and national governments. Commonwealth

countries had around 879 million urban dwellers

in 2015 and this is projected to grow to 1.3 billion

by 2030. Projections also suggest that most of the

population growth will be in urban areas – and that

the level of urbanisation will rise from 38 to 45% in

these fi fteen years.

Most Commonwealth countries have faced a very rapid

growth in their urban populations and many fast growing

cities, and it has proved diffi cult for their governments to

keep up. Many cities have faced a tenfold increase in their

population over the last 40 years. Many larger cities face

annual population increases of over 100,000 a year. The

scale of urban population growth projected for 2015-

2030: for India, 10.9 million new urban dwellers a year, for

Nigeria 4.8 million, for Pakistan 2.3 million, for Bangladesh

1.9 million, for Tanzania 1.1 million.3

In most cities in low and middle-income nations, a

large part of the growth in their populations over

recent decades has been in informal settlements. Local

governments or national utilities often refuse to provide

infrastructure and services to these or they are prevented

by law from doing so. It is common for cities to have 30-

60 percent of their population in informal settlements –

and some have even higher percentages. This helps explain

the very large defi cits in provision in urban areas for key

infrastructure.

In 2015, 400 million urban dwellers in the Commonwealth

lacked a drinking water source piped to their home

and 315 million lacked even rudimentary provision for

sanitation. According to UN-Habitat, 255 million lived

in ‘slums’ in 2014. In this year, India had 98 million slum

dwellers, Nigeria 42 million, Bangladesh 29 million - and

Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and

Tanzania between 4 and 8 million.4 Figure 1 shows the

% of the urban population with water piped on premises

in 2015 – note the very large defi cits in provision for

many nations, and Figure 2 shows nations that have gone

backwards on provision for water piped on premises as

they had a lower proportion of their urban population

with this in 2015 than in 1990.

Ensuring a safe space for citizens, especially women,

is essential for local economic development. City-

managed market places are one of the most important

areas for women vendors to be able to sell produce

and make a livelihood. In an attempt to stem endemic

violence and intimidation in and around many city

markets in Commonwealth countries, city governments

have undertaken a number of initiatives to increase

safety and security.

A 2011 UN Women study of Port Moresby, the capital

of Papua New Guinea found that with around 80%

of the vendors in the markets being women and girls,

55% reported that they had experienced some form

of violence and 22% had experienced more than one

incidence of sexual violence while in the markets in the

last 12 months, with several reported cases of rape.

To address this, the city council has facilitated the

establishment of vendors associations, with 50%

representation of women in executive positions, and

has reviewed how their budgets are allocated to ensure

that the needs of women and men are taken into

account across the different municipal departments.

The city council is also launching a Safe Cities Behaviour

Change Campaign which has fi ve components:

reformed and enhanced systems to prevent and reduce

violence in public spaces; enhanced capacity of duty

bearers and agents of change to prevent and respond

to violence against women and girls; increased respect

amongst market users for women’s and girl’s rights to

a life free from violence; gender sensitive infrastructure

and social planning measures; and, capacity building for

media to report and cover issues of violence against

women and girls and provide information about

services available.

Making markets safe for women and girls – lessons from Port Moresby

3 UN-Habitat (2016), World Cities Report 2016: Urbanization and Development; Emerging Futures, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Nairobi, 247 pages.4 This is based on UN-Habitat’s defi nition of slum households – see the report listed in reference 2. Some governments have their own defi nition of slums and thus have different fi gures for their slum population to those coming from the UN.

1 Introduction


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3. Challenges

Figure 1: % of urban population with water piped on premises 2015

0

23

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Source: Statistics drawn from UNICEF and WHO, (2015), 25 Years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water; 2015 Update and MDG

Assessment.

Source: Statistics drawn from UNICEF and WHO, (2015), 25 Years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water; 2015 Update and MDG

Assessment.

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Figure 2: Nations with a decline in % of their urban population with water piped on premises 1990-2015


www.clgf.org.uk8

By 2020, the population of Auckland, New Zealand is

expected to expand from 1.4 million to 2.2 million, and

Auckland Transport, the agency responsible for the city’s

public transportation system, has launched more than

200 capital projects ranging from bridges to new bike

lanes and massive rail tunnels. Auckland approaches their

infrastructure projects from a holistic, strategic perspective,

and have partnered with Microsoft SharePoint Server

and local partner LeapThough and adopted a custom

digital solution called Fulcrum to manage the 200-plus

construction projects. Developed by LeapThought, Fulcrum

uses the capabilities of SharePoint Server to provide

cross-departmental tools that help manage properties

impacted by projects such as the NZ $2.4 billion (US$

1.65 billion), 10-year megaproject City Rail Link. The city is

using Fulcrum to keep track of every step in a complicated

property acquisition process and enables the sharing of all

construction, design, and legal documents related to the

project across the project teams and stakeholders. Because

Fulcrum uses the capabilities of SharePoint Server, the city

is able to track every stage of a project with complete audit

capabilities, and stakeholders can store and share large two

and three-dimensional designs in a central location that

can be accessed online. The cost savings and operational

effi ciencies gained by using Fulcrum on big projects can

also extend to smaller capital projects as well and Auckland

estimates savings of $3 million in the fi rst 10 years alone.

(Taken from ‘Award winning solution keeps Auckland ahead of the growth curve’ by, Roger Jones, Chief Information Offi cer, Auckland

Transport, as featured on the Microsoft CityNext website)

Using technology to manage large infrastructure projects - Auckland

3. Challenges

One of the most pressing challenges for addressing the

SDGs in urban areas is having urban governments with

the technical capacity and the fi nance needed to act on

the goals – including act on the defi cits made evident

in Figures 1 and 2. It is a little humbling to recall how

all the government representatives attending Habitat

I in 1976 made a commitment to universal provision

for water and sanitation by 1990. But the limited data

available on municipal fi nance shows so many cities and

smaller urban centres with little or no investment capacity

– and it is generally cities with the largest defi cits in

infrastructure and services that have the least investment

capacity. For instance, for the few cities for which data is

available, in sub-Saharan African cities, municipal budgets

are the equivalent of between US $5 and $50 (except

for South Africa where they are much higher) whereas

innovative cities in Latin America have the equivalent

of US $400 to $1,300. So strengthening the fi nancial

base of urban governments has great importance both

through decentralisation and through urban governments

expanding their own revenues. The ‘Zero draft Revised’

of the New Urban Agenda states that “we will promote

context-sensitive approaches in fi nancing urbanisation and

in enhancing fi nancial management capacities at all levels of

government, adopting specifi c instruments and mechanisms

necessary to achieve sustainable urban development…”

(110) and “We will mobilise endogenous resources and

revenues generated through the capture of benefi ts of

urbanization…” (111)

The SDGs also stress the need for monitoring government

progress and a long list of indicators to do so have been

elaborated. But these say little about the huge lack of data

on many of these challenges, especially disaggregated data

(i.e. data on each locality/ward/small area).

At present, in most low- and middle-income nations, data

collected by governments (eg censuses) and international

agencies (eg the Demographic and Health Surveys) do

not provide local governments with the data they need

to act. Many national government sample surveys do

not have sample sizes large enough to provide relevant

disaggregated data to urban governments. Censuses

should provide this (as they cover the entire population)

but it is rare for census authorities to provide local

governments with the data they need disaggregated to

small area units or streets – i.e. what is needed to design

and implement the initiatives needed to meet SDG goals.

In many countries, to this is added a failure to record

causes of death. Innovations in ICT continue to provide

new and cheaper methods for collecting this essential data,

as well as opportunities to empower communities through

decentralising data collection, but the ultimate decision to

aggregate this data lies with central government.

A National Urban Policy (NUP) harnesses the dynamics

of urbanisation and integrates them into the national

development strategy. The role of NUP is not to replace

local urban policies, but to assist with harnessing the

benefi ts of urbanisation while mitigating the challenges. This

is achieved by helping to align sectoral policies that affect

urban areas and by developing an enabling institutional

environment. A recent example of such a policy is the

2015 National Urbanisation Policy of Rwanda which

facilitates positive urban developments across the country.

For example, improved access to building land, serviced by

a series of reforms such as the reallocation of land and the

creation of land bank, the preservation of urban culture

and heritage, the introduction of a property tax, funding

for public investment, and promoting urban governance.

National urban policies

4 This is based on UN-Habitat’s defi nition of slum households – see the report listed in reference 2. Some governments have their own defi nition of slums and thus have different fi gures for their slum population to those coming from the UN.

1 Introduction


9 www.clgf.org.uk

Poverty reduction and

universal provison of

services

Poor housing, living and working conditions and lack of infrastructure and services underpin poverty and contribute much to disaster risk, especially in low and lower-middle income nations. So there are many overlaps between redcuction of poverty and reduction of disaster risk. Also some overlaps in what provides resilience for low-income households and for cities

Climate change

adaptation

Climatechange

mitigation

Disaster riskreduction



services

Climatechange

adaptation



services

Climatechange

adaptation


Climatechange

mitigation

Climate changemitigation



services

The urban agendas

Economic success

Making this workfor the billion in informal

settlemsnts

Large overlaps between the three, especially in low-and lower-middle income nations. All are concerned with reducing local risks; all need risk-reducing infrastructure and health care and emergency services

Importance of local citizen/civil society pressure an organisation to get action on these, especially for most vulnerable groups

Climate change mitigation not having many direct overlaps as the risks it is addressing are global and with their largest impacts in the future

But mitigation is essential to the other three agendas because wihtout it, the scale and nature of risk in the future threatens progress in all the other urban agendas



services



Climatechange

adaptation

Disasterrisk

reduction

4. Achieving sustainable developmentAll defi nitions of sustainable development are about

addressing more than one objective and making different

environmental and development objectives work together.

Figure 3 illustrates the bringing together of four urban

agendas that are emphasised in the SDGs: economic

success combined with poverty reduction and universal

provision of services (and making this work for the

billion living in informal settlements) that then folds into

development disaster risk reduction and climate change

adaptation and mitigation. Other aspects need addressing

too – for instance protecting ecosystem services and

sustainable water and waste water management, but at

least in part these are within these four agendas.

4. Achieving sustainable development

Figure 3: The four urban agendas and their overlaps

Source: Bartlett, Sheridan and David Satterthwaite (editors) (2016), Cities on a

Finite Planet; Towards Transformative Responses to Climate Change, Routledge,

London.


www.clgf.org.uk10

5. City leadership

5. City leadership We have many strong examples from high-income

Commonwealth countries of innovative cities and of

what a functioning local democracy (often with elected

mayors) committed to more accountable, transparent

and participatory ways of working can do. There are

fewer examples of this among low and middle-income

nations. However, in Latin America, it was linked to

changes at national level –in most cases, the return to

democracy and changes in the constitution to support

decentralisation and stronger fi nancial bases for local

governments. It is also linked to the region being

heavily urbanised. New concepts and approaches were

developed – including participatory budgeting that

allowed the residents of each district within a city to

set priorities for public works and that made the whole

government budget more transparent.5

There has also been city-based innovation and leadership

in other regions. Among Commonwealth countries in

Africa, Durban has been an innovator in linking climate

change adaptation and mitigation to development and to

promoting and supporting other cities to innovate – for

instance through the Durban Adaptation Charter.6 City

and municipal governments have also been encouraged

and supported to act through their membership of city

networks – for instance the Global Taskforce of Local

and Regional Governments which supports the work of

the Local Authorities Major Group (LAMG), to facilitate

the participation of the constituency in UN processes –

and also CLGF, UCLG, ICLEI, C-40 and the Compact of

Mayors.

In many Commonwealth countries, there are powerful

examples of urban poor groups forming their own saving

groups, in which most savers and saving group managers

are women, who work together with local governments.

For instance, there are national federations of slum/shack

dwellers in India, South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania,

Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Ghana and all seek to

work with local governments – for instance in upgrading

their settlements or building new homes where land is

available. These federations have also developed a capacity

to undertake detailed surveys and prepare detailed maps

for all informal settlements in a city – information local

governments usually lack – that provides the information

base to guide interventions. These have been prepared

in over 600 cities, most of which are in Commonwealth

countries, and advances in ICT present opportunities for

further expansion of these types of initiatives.7

5 Cabannes, Yves (2004), “Participatory budgeting: a signifi cant contribution to participatory democracy”, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 16, No. 1, pages 27-46; Cabannes, Yves (2015), “Participatory budgeting and basic services; municipal practice and evidence from the fi eld”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 27, No. 1.

6 Roberts, Debra, Derek Morgan, Sean O’Donoghue, Lisa Guastella, Nongcebo Hlongwa, Penny Price (2016), Durban, South Africa, in Bartlett, Sheridan and David Satterthwaite (editors), Cities on a Finite Planet; Towards transformative responses to climate change, Routledge, London, pages 96-115.

7 See the Know Your City programme described at www.sdinet.org for more details

In many countries there continues to be a blurring of

responsibilities between local and national governments.

This is particularly the case in capital cities where national

governments often ignore city authority as they carry out

their functions, and even more so where when there is an

opposition party in power at the local level. One of the

major areas requiring attention in the Jamaican context

has been identifi ed as the overlapping roles of MPs and

councillors in local development. Citizens want their

roads fi xed regardless of who has responsibility. Kingston

believes that the local authority is uniquely placed to play

the role of facilitator : bringing together different spheres

of the public sector, the private sector and civil society. This

approach helps to build the credibility of the city council

while as partners they enable joined-up governance across

a wide range of sectors.

Through regular Town Hall meetings and sector-specifi c

consultations, the council brings stakeholders together

to discuss issues affecting citizens, enabling a shared

understanding of the needs of the citizens, a clearer

understanding of the challenges faced by all concerned

and providing an opportunity for suggestions for

greater collaboration aimed at increased effi ciency and

effectiveness.

Another key challenge for the city is the lack of

appropriate and timely data. For example with the current

Zika virus crisis, the Department of Public Health does

not automatically share data relating to suspected and

confi rmed cases in the city with the council, limiting the

council’s ability to understand and respond to emerging

challenges. One of the solutions has been for the City

Council to host multi-sector discussions which allow

various public sector agencies such as the police, health

department and city council to work together to share

data, ideas and approaches without being territorial.

Creating a culture of shared governance is essential and at

times diffi cult to effect.

Challenges for city leadership and the issue of capital cities

1 Introduction


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6. Financing and investment

6. Financing and investment Achieving the development objectives set out in the

SDGs will require properly resourced cities. Achieving

fair and equitable fi scal decentralisation, reduction

of unfunded mandates, and improved access to and

mobilisation of own source revenue, will be essential

in ensuring inclusive equitable urban environments.

Financing large scale development and infrastructure

investment will require access to new and innovative

fi nancing mechanisms such as climate change fi nancing

and other international funds, development partner

funding, and partnerships with the private sector

through funding mechanisms such as municipal bonds,

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), and aggregated

borrowing. In many cases local governments currently

lack the necessary empowerment and has limited

human, technical and fi nancial capacity, which will affect

their ability to play a full role in the implementation of

the SDGs.

Urban planning: Few urban governments in the low

and middle-income Commonwealth nations have the

capacity to plan – or to implement agreed plans – and

to manage urban expansion. Managing urban expansion

well is central to many of the SDGs, including ensuring an

adequate supply of serviced land for new housing, avoiding

sprawl and hazardous areas; and protecting watersheds

and other ecosystem services (fl ooding prevention being

one key aspect in many cities). There are diffi cult and

often contentious trade-offs that need to be made (e.g.

upgrading versus resettlement) and often powerful real

estate interests that subvert needed land-use management.

Local economic development (LED): is an approach

which brings together different partners in a local area to

work together and harness local resources for sustainable

economic growth; it is becoming increasingly recognised

as a function of local government. Although LED is often

not a formal statutory requirement, even of urban local

government, many of the existing roles and functions of

local government (such as the delivery of core services

and public goods), together with its democratic legitimacy

and role as a community leader and convener, mean

that it is well positioned to integrate strategies for

economic development into its work. Local governments

are increasingly building an economic development

component into their local strategic planning; they can

facilitate the necessary strategic and local partnerships eg

with the private sector and community organisations, to

support local economic development in their communities;

and they can ensure that they create a strong enabling

environment for development through improving the

services and quality of life in their communities with long-

term sustainable investment. They are also well placed to

relate directly to other spheres of government, where

appropriate, eg in electrifi cation etc.

LED offers a comprehensive framework for ‘integrating’

and ‘localising’ the SDGs. Local and regional governments

can play a crucial catalytic role as initiators and drivers

of effective LED processes, fostering participation, the

creation of decent jobs, and the economic empowerment

of women, youth and vulnerable groups. LED contributes

to strengthening social trust and cohesion, helping to build

societies that are more stable and resilient to growing,

complex and widespread risks, preventing confl ict, and

ensuring sustainable development.

Leadership, both from within the council but also across

the local community and the private sector, has been a

critical factor in the success of Belize City Council’s local

economic development programme. Spearheaded by the

Mayor, the City has focused on building relationships across

the community to engage local people in developing a

vision for economic growth and development. This has

also helped to change the way in which the private sector

views the council. The city council’s reputation with the

private sector has shifted from one of wariness that the

council was only interested in collecting their taxes, to one

that sees the council enabling investment and job creation.

LED is now part of the Belize City Urban Development

Masterplan 2011-2030, has been integrated across all

departments and service areas, and a specifi c LED Unit

has been established to implement the strategy.

City leadership for local economic development in Belize City


www.clgf.org.uk12

6. Financing and investment

Habitat III and the search for The New Urban Agenda: One of the disappointments with the most

recent Zero Draft of the New Habitat Agenda is that

it feels a need to have another long list of goals. This

is a big disappointment. The New Urban Agenda was

meant to be about how the full range of SDGs and the

Paris Agreement can be realised in urban areas by urban

governments. Instead, it is another long list of goals that

don’t add much to commitments already made and it is

all about national governments - “We commit” stated 42

times “we will” 87 times. So much of what ‘we’ commit to

are actually the responsibilities of local government. We

do not need more goals. What we need is the capacity,

willingness and fi nance to address goals in each urban

locality to which governments have already committed.

The commitment that should be there is “We commit to

supporting urban governments to develop their responses

to the SDGs within their jurisdiction and to work

with them so no-one is left behind. This means shifting

attention from defi ning goals to creating the institutional

and governance basis for achieving them.”


Ethekwini Municipality (Durban) is committed to an urban

development strategy that is holistic and sustainable.

The city has identifi ed the SDGs as key elements that

infl uences the city’s strategic approach to development.

At a strategic level the city has aligned its Integrated

Development Plan (IDP) to the 17 SDGs and at an

operational level each of the programmes that would

be implemented have been aligned to the relevant goals

and targets. The incorporation of the SDGs into the

city strategy has come at an opportune time where all

South African municipalities are developing their fi ve year

IDP’s. Ethekwini Municipality is using the opportunity to

incorporate the SDGs into its long term city development

strategy which is being spearheaded by a City Planning

Commission. One of the key objectives is to continuously

highlight the importance of the SDGs and how they

infl uence the sustainability of the city, through various

communication tools. The city has hosted a Master Class

on localising the SDGs with local and national ministers

from Sri Lanka and the council-hosted Municipal Institute

of Learning (MILE) which is a dedicated knowledge

management unit within the city, that will be championing

the learning and peer-to-peer exchanges on the

localisation of the SDGs with various partner cites both in

and outside the region.

Integrated Development Planning for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level

1 Introduction


13 www.clgf.org.uk

7. Conclusions

7. ConclusionsIt is good to see the recognition of the importance of

cities to national economies. But economic success in

any city does not automatically contribute to a healthier

city, a more inclusive city (where as the SDGs state

no-one is left behind) or a sustainable city. This needs

capable and accountable urban governments.

Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers within the

Commonwealth have very inadequate incomes and live

in poor quality, overcrowded housing that lacks basic

infrastructure and services. In some nations, there is

even a lower proportion of their population with water

piped to premises to what they had in 1990. So they

have actually gone backwards on their commitments.

Most Commonwealth countries have faced a very rapid

growth in their urban populations in recent decades

and they have not managed to develop the national and

local governance structures to allow them to keep up.

Projections suggest a growth in the urban population of

the Commonwealth of 400 million in the next 15 years.

We noted earlier the scale of urban population growth

projected for 2015-2030 that included 10.9 million new

urban dwellers a year for India and 4.8 million a year for

Nigeria. Will these simply get added to the population

in informal settlements lacking services? Now, to this

governance and service provision there is an added

challenge, including the need to adapt all urban centres

and systems to operate within regional and global

resource limits, build resilience to the increasing risks

climate change is bringing and contribute to the reduction

in greenhouse gas emissions.

When seen in aggregate, this seems impossible. But if seen

as spread across the tens of thousands of urban centres

within Commonwealth countries it seems less daunting.

But this requires urban (municipal and metropolitan)

governments with the capacity to govern well, to act, to

mobilise resources – addressing local needs (and being

accountable to local populations, especially those who are

most likely to be left behind) and folding into this disaster

risk management climate change adaptation and mitigation.

We know this is possible as it has been demonstrated in

many cities. But these cities and towns are the outliers.

The ones that have succeeded. It is in getting comparable

innovation among most or all urban government that is

the basis for meeting the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

But this is a challenge to national governments because

effective local governments depend on supportive and

appropriate legislation, rules and regulations (planning,

health and safety, building standards, disaster risk reduction,

climate change) and systems of devolved fi nance. Success

or failure to achieve genuine multi-level governance will

signifi cantly impact on the countries’ abilities to achieve

sustainable urban development.

As noted above, we do not need more goals. What we

need is the capacity and willingness in each urban centre

to respond to local needs and priorities and, within the

framework of the global goals, to develop and implement

key services to promote sustainable local development,

which should be quantifi ed so that it is seen to contribute

to efforts to address the goals to which governments

have already committed. Why doesn’t the New Urban

Agenda look as short, precise, action-oriented frameworks

that have encouraged local government to act – as in the

Healthy Cities movement, participatory budgeting and the

Hyogo and Sendai frameworks for disaster risk reduction?8

Do we accept that the two most important actors

for getting the SDGs addressed in urban areas are

urban governments and local civil society (especially

representative organisations of the urban poor whose

unmet needs, the SDGs are meant to address)? If that is

the case, then we need to look at the changes in what

national government and international agencies do.

International development assistance agencies are only as

effective as the local intermediaries through which their

funding fl ows. The key issue is thus how to increase and

enhance support to these two actors. Local funds are

needed so that they can draw on and can be managed

in ways that are transparent and accountable downwards

to their population, as well as upwards to higher levels of

government and horizontally to the stakeholders, funders

and others active in the urban territory. Development

assistance is legitimated on the basis of it addressing

the needs of urban (and rural) poor groups. It is time

it developed direct contacts with them and becomes

accountable.

8 More details of these and other ‘new urban agendas’ are discussed in Satterthwaite, David (2016), “Editorial: a New Urban Agenda?” Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 28, No. 1, pages 3-12.


www.clgf.org.uk14

Annex 1

We, the mayors and local government representatives

from cities across the Commonwealth, meeting in under

the auspices of the Commonwealth Local Government

Forum, CLGF, on the occasion of Cities 2030-Vision,

Leadership and Public Service Excellence, Singapore, 5-6

October 2015:

Appreciative of the facilities and hospitality, provided by

our co-hosts, the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service

Excellence and the Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore;

Saluting World Habitat Day 2015 and conscious of

the preparations to develop the New Urban Agenda in

anticipation of Habitat III in 2016 in recognition that a

majority of the SDG targets and indicators are applicable

at urban level;

Acknowledging the adoption by the United Nations

of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its

recognition of the role of cities and local governments

in the new sustainable development goals, the SDGs,

especially SDG 11 to ‘make cities and human settlements

inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, SDG 16 on

effective, accountable and inclusive institutions, as well as

in respect of the means of implementation, set out in the

Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the provisions for sub-

national follow-up and review of the SDG;

Encouraged by the statement of the UN Secretary-

General of 24 September 2015 that cities are at the heart

of many global challenges and opportunities and that

mayors will have a critical role in the implementation of

the entire spectrum of the 2030 Agenda;

Endorsing the local government commitment to

implement the SDGs contained in the CLGF Gaborone

Declaration- Local Government Vision 2030, the

Declaration of Cities’ Commitment of the 2030

Sustainable Development Agenda and the Statement of

the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments

‘All SDGs are Local’;

Convinced that the establishment of the new

Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network, CSCN, by

the CLGF, provides a valuable and practical vehicle for our

cities and other Commonwealth cities to join together to

help set, implement and monitor the SDGs and assist us in

developing the necessary capacity for this task;

Commit to:

1. Inform our citizens and communities about the

importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development and engaging with central and provincial

government, development partners, academia, civil

society and private sector partners to ensure the

application and localisation of relevant SDGs in our

own areas of jurisdiction.

2. Focus on core areas of need, including making cities

inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; creating

effective, accountable and inclusive institutions;

promoting economic growth and employment;

building resilient infrastructure; and addressing climate

change, with special attention to the needs of cities in

least developed countries and small island developing

states.

3. Share knowledge and know-how on successful

strategies to implement the 2030 Agenda among the

CSCN membership and through direct city-to-city

partnerships.

4. Work with CLGF, UNDP-GCPSE, CLC Singapore and

other partners to develop the necessary technical

skills and capacity to help set, implement and monitor

the SDGs, thereby ensuring a bottom-up approach to

sustainable development.

5. Cooperate with CLGF and through the CSCN to

realise the pledges of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda

for scaling-up international cooperation to strengthen

the capacities of municipalities and other local

authorities, to give support in implementing resilient

and environmentally sound infrastructure, to support

local governments to mobilise revenues, strengthen

debt management and municipal bond markets and

help subnational authorities to fi nance necessary

investments and promote lending from fi nancial

institutions and development banks, deal with risk

mitigation and holistic disaster risk management in line

with the 2015 Sendai Framework.

6. Make use of CLGF’s unique central and local

government membership to promote partnership

between mayors and ministers to implement the

2030 Agenda, with a view to ensure that the concerns

of cities and their specifi c developmental and fi nancial

needs are adequately recognised in national policy-

making, including through appropriate legislation and,

where applicable, constitutional recognition, in line

with the Commonwealth Aberdeen Principles on

Local Democracy and Good Governance.

7. Take up membership, where applicable, of CLGF and

its CSCN and mandate the Mayors of Kingston and

St. Andrew, Jamaica; Strovolos, Cyprus and Windhoek,

Namibia to form the steering committee of the

CSCN, and cooperate with the CLGF Board and

Secretary-General in developing its membership,

organisation and work programme in line with the

aims and objectives set out above.

Singapore, 6 October 2015

Singapore statement on commonwealth cities implementing the 2030

agenda on sustainable development

1 Introduction


15 www.clgf.org.uk

Notes

1 Introduction


www.clgf.org.uk16

Commonwealth Local Government Forum, 16a Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AP, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7389 1490 fax: +44 (0) 20 7389 1499 email: [email protected]

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